What to Do Before the Insurance Adjuster Arrives

Filing an Insurance Claim on Your Home: What Actually Helps

When something goes wrong — a burst pipe, a storm, a fire, water coming through a ceiling — most homeowners are dealing with an insurance claim for the first time in their lives. The adjuster does this every day. You don't. That imbalance is where most claims go sideways.

Here's what we've learned from being on site for these, and where a contractor can genuinely help — plus where we can't, and where you should be careful of anyone who says they can.

Document before anything gets touched

The single most common mistake is cleaning up first.

Photograph and video everything before any demolition, drying, or removal — wide shots of each room, then close-ups of specific damage. Include the source if it's visible. Photograph the contents, not just the structure. Date matters, so use your phone rather than a camera that doesn't timestamp.

Keep every receipt from the emergency phase: fans, dehumidifiers, a hotel room, a plumber called at midnight to stop the water. These are often reimbursable and they're almost always the first things people forget to claim.

One exception that overrides all of this: you have a duty under your policy to prevent further damage. Stop the water. Cover the roof. Don't leave a house open to weather so the photos look worse — that can work against you.

Read your own policy before the adjuster arrives

Almost nobody does this, and it's the highest-leverage hour you'll spend.

Find out specifically:

• Replacement cost or actual cash value? This is the biggest variable in what you'll receive. Actual cash value deducts depreciation. Replacement cost pays to replace, though often in two payments — an initial one, and the depreciation released after the work is completed.

• Your deductible. Know the number before anyone quotes you anything.

• What's excluded. Flood is typically a separate policy from a homeowners policy. Sewer and drain backup is frequently an add-on. Gradual leaks and long-term seepage are commonly excluded, while sudden and accidental discharge is commonly covered — which is why the cause and timing matter so much in the documentation.

• Whether there's an ordinance or law provision. In older homes this can matter a great deal: it addresses the cost of bringing repaired work up to current code, which the base coverage may not include.

If the policy language is unclear, your insurance agent is obligated to explain it and it costs you nothing to ask.

Have your contractor on site for the inspection

This is legitimate and it helps.

An adjuster's inspection is usually fast. A contractor who is physically present can point out what's behind the visible damage — what the water traveled through, what has to come out to make the repair correctly, what code requirements the repair triggers. A ceiling stain is the visible part. The insulation, framing, and electrical above it are the actual scope.

We can also provide a written, itemized estimate for the full repair. That estimate becomes something concrete for the adjuster to work from rather than an argument in the abstract.

What we do — and what we don't

We're going to be specific here, because this is where the industry gets murky.

What we do: document the damage, prepare a detailed written scope and estimate, meet the adjuster on site, explain the construction work the repair actually requires, and answer technical questions about what's needed and why.

What we don't do: negotiate your claim, interpret your coverage, or represent you to your insurance company. That work is called public adjusting. It's a licensed profession in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and we are contractors, not licensed public adjusters. If a claim turns into a dispute over coverage or valuation, the right people are a licensed public adjuster or an attorney — not us.

Be cautious with any contractor who tells you they'll "handle the whole claim" or "deal with the insurance company for you." Ask them directly whether they hold a public adjuster license.

Two things that should end the conversation immediately

Anyone who offers to waive, absorb, or "take care of" your deductible. Your deductible is your obligation under your contract with the insurer. A contractor covering it — usually by inflating the estimate to compensate — is insurance fraud, and you're a party to it. It's also a reliable indicator of how that contractor handles everything else.

Anyone pressuring you to sign at the door after a storm. Read anything before you sign it, particularly if it assigns your claim benefits to the contractor. Take a photo of it and let a day pass.

A practical note about money

Insurance work has a payment rhythm that surprises people. Funds often arrive in stages, a mortgage company may be named on the check and have to endorse it, and depreciation is commonly held back until the work is finished and documented.

Ask your contractor early how their payment schedule aligns with that. It's a fair question, it protects both sides, and a contractor who has done this before will have a clear answer.

Dealing with a claim right now?

We'll walk the damage with you and give you a written scope of what the repair actually requires — before the adjuster comes out.

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RF Home Remodeling — Philadelphia, South Jersey, Cherry Hill & Pennington